All You Need Is Kill – well, I also need twinkies

5 of 5 Fucking-Awesome Stars – All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

I saw the movie Edge of Tomorrow this past summer, which was based on this book. The movie was fucking awesome, so I absolutely had to read this book. The book didn’t have quite the Hollywood happy ending as the movie, but it did have an ending that made a bit more sense.

Often times, when I read a book after seeing the movie, I quit reading halfway through, because fuck, I know what’s going to happen. Why bother? Well, with this book, I had no fucking clue what was going to happen, because it was that much different from the movie. I mean, the basic ideas are the same. Guy kills an alien which puts him in a time loop, so every time he dies, he comes back to life at the same point in time, like Groundhog Day. But there were so many differences in the details, that it was still a compelling page turner.

This book is about a war with invading aliens. And about a man who doesn’t want to have anything to do with the war. But he is thrust into it, by his superiors. He knows that going into battle would be a death sentence, because he isn’t a fucking soldier, goddamnit. He’s a fucking paper-pusher. He doesn’t know how to fight.

He is sent into battle, anyway. Because to the marines, he is just cannon fodder. He’s just another expendable body to throw at the aliens. Somehow, he survives the battle, after executing a bomb, that he was sure would kill him, and the attacking alien. But it turns out, that it didn’t actually kill him. Instead, it sent him into a time loop. He’s back at the base, being introduced to the sergeant, once again.

So, he ends up going into battle, over and over. Dying, over and over. Until he meets a woman who trains him to fight. She trains him to use the time loop, to stop the alien invasion.

I can’t recommend this book enough. And the movie. The movie was great, even with that psycho weirdo Tom Cruise. Both the book, and the movie are non-stop action. Compelling, and not predictable at all. There. I’m done with the ball washing. I can only drool so much, goddamnit.

Visit me at Goodreads and Follow me on Twitter & Facebook